A new beginning
by em287
Summary: A friend is gone and it's time to move on. But is it really that easy? This is my fictional continuation of the season 8 final. Gil/Sara
1. Saying goodbye

**Chapter one: Saying goodbye**

The hallway was quieter than ever and apart from a few lab techs nobody was working this morning. Grissom couldn't remember the last time the lab's atmosphere had ever been this gloomy. Maybe the night they thought they would loose Nick forever?

He sat alone in his blacked out office, staring into empty space while trying to think of the last time he had ever been truly happy. He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember anything anymore. The sadness he felt at this moment was overwhelming and almost suffocating. How could everything have gone so terrible wrong?

The door to his office opened with a careful movement and a familiar face stuck her head through the opening.

"Gil, are you in here?" A gentle smile formed on his lips. Even though she couldn't see him through the darkness, he knew exactly who had come looking for him.

"I'm here Sara". The door closed behind her as she entered his office with small careful footsteps. He leaned across the desk to switch on the lamp and give them both the light they needed to be able to see each other. Grissom knew immediately that she'd been crying. Her normally beautiful brown were now swollen and filled with tears waiting to make the journey down her cheeks. Grissom rose from the chair he'd been sitting in for the last couple hours and joined Sara on the other side of the cluttered desk. She welcomed his warm hug and buried her face in his soft chest. It had been almost five weeks since their last meeting. Five weeks of yearning, not been able to smell her hair or touch her smooth skin.

"I missed you" She whispered sadly into his neck.

"I missed you too".

They stayed like that for a while, just clinging on to each other while trying to forget why she was there in the first place.

"You need any help with the tie?" She asked noticing his black tie hanging on the armrest.

"Please" He told her and reluctantly let her go. His arms dropped to the sides as he waited for her to place the tie around his neck and make the perfect knot. A tear fell silently down her cheek and he instinctively wiped it away with his right thumb. Her eyes closed for a brief moment before finishing of the tie knot.

"We should go, the others are waiting for us in the car" She said staring into his chest.

"Let's say goodbye to our friend"

The funeral was beautiful. Warrick would really have loved it Sara thought as she looked around the crowded room clearly overdecorated with flowers. Grissom and Nick gave two wonderful speeches, talking about this perfect and talented man and colleague they both knew and how empty life would be from now on. Across the room she noticed Catherine staring out the big window. She was holding a glass of red wine in one hand and a few tissues in the other. Her cheeks had turned a bit blackish, a combination of falling tears and black mascara. She too had planed to give a speech at the funeral but in the last minute broke down in tears and sobs making her unable to talk.

An hour later people were still mingling, telling each other stories about the late Warrick. Half the people in here didn't even know him, but came just to pay their respect.

"How are you holding up?" a voice said from behind and a strong warm hand landed onto her shoulder.

"I'm doing my best not to…cry" Sara answered with a slightly unsteady tone. Grissom let go of her arm and sat down in the empty chair beside her.

"What about you Gris?" he looked up. "Are you…hanging in there?"

"I don't know" he answered truthfully. "I've always felt I had some sort of control over my life. Even when everything felt unbelievable difficult and unusually hard I always had a way to snap out of it". He took a quick look around the room. "The moment I heard that Jim had found Warrick shot to death in the car everything went dark, and I don't know what I have to do to move on from here. I don't know what to do to make everything better".

Sara kept his gaze for a moment before she leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the lips.

"It takes time Gris. This isn't something we'll get over in a week or even in a month. This is something we'll have to learn how to live with". Sara gave him another kiss. "We'll work it out together, I promise".

"Guys, Cath isn't feeling too good so I'm going to drive her home", Nick said walking up to the couple. He was trying unsuccessfully to hold himself together, Catherine needed him right now and he had to stay strong for her.

"You should take a cab Nicky" Sara said. "You are in no condition to drive home".

"I'm fine, it's Catherine I'm worried about. She's about to have a breakdown if I don't take her out of here now".

"Just drive carefully Nick, we don't want to loose…" Gil trailed of realizing what he was about to say.

"Don't worry. I'll see you next week". Nick turned around as soon as he finished his sentence and started moving in the direction of the coatroom, never looking back to see his two friends following him with sad eyes until they no longer could see him behind the mass of people.


	2. It’s a process

**Chapter two – It's a process**

Two hours later Sara and Gil were lying in their unmade bed in their joint apartment just a few blocks away from where the reception had been held. Besides the constant coughing coming from the old cabdriver, clearly due to years of smoking, the drive home had been unusually quiet, even for the two of them. No words were spoken between the two lovers as the yellow cab came to a stop in front of their home. Gil had quickly paid the man before leading Sara by the hand towards the tall building and the elevator. While pressing the third floor button he kept Sara close to himself all the way up to their floor. He needed to feel her presence just as much as she needed him right now.

"I can't believe he's gone" Sara stated after a good half an hour of staring into the white wallpaper.

"I can't either" He whispered honestly and hugged her, if possible, even tighter to his chest. A tear fell down his cheek and landed on the soft pillow beneath his head. A soft, almost inaudible, sob escaped his lips and made Sara turn around to face the man she had come to love over the years. He looked tired and exhausted, something that gave the impression of him being older than he should. He had known Warrick almost as long as he had worked in Las Vegas and had been the one teaching Warrick everything he knew about being great at his job as a CSI. In the beginning Sara had been a bit jealous of their close friendship since the relationship between she and Gil had been less than fine at that time. She assumed it was the reason she and Warrick always kept disagreeing about every little thing back then when she was a newbie in the team. Luckily she eventually ended up being one of the guys and everything became more and more perfect. That is until now.

She laid her hand carefully on his warm cheek and brushed away another tear that was threatening to fall. When he closed his eyes she took the opportunity to move even closer and capture his lips with her own. He responded immediately to the kiss which quickly deepened in desperation. His hands travelled her body as he scooted closer until she was laying on her back with him half on top of her. He looked down at his gorgeous girl while lifting her black dress she had yet to take off since she came through the door. The lovemaking was different today. It was about comfort and body contact, which were exactly what both of them needed right now. The sweat dripped from their naked bodies as the feeling almost became too much for the two of them.

After they just laid there together, tangled in each other as well as in the blue linen sheets Sara had bought the last week she had been home, all while gasping for air.

"You know I love you right" Sara said softly into his ear.

"I love you too"

On the other side of town Nick had just put a crying Catherine to sleep and was now sitting alone on the black couch in her living room. Her daughter was spending the night at Catherine's mother's place since she didn't want her child to see her like this. Nick took another sip of the hot coffee in his hands, careful not to burn his tongue a second time. What was going to happen now? he thought to himself. Was he supposed to go back to work next Friday and pretend like nothing had ever happened? Ecklie, who had given the team a week off to process the loss of their friend, where expecting them to be professionally when they came back. What was it he had said? _It comes with the job; Brown knew the risks of being a CSI_. He wasn't even working that night, he was fucking murdered! Nick felt the blood pumping faster through his veins. Everything felt like a bad dream, a dream he more than anything wanted to wake up from.


End file.
